Rep Thread: My house is under contract!

[Mephistopheles Janx]

I'm just happy. Bought a house nearly 15 years ago but then moved out about 7 years later. Instead of selling the house then, we decided to rent it out. The past 6 years we have just had the one tenant who, literally, never bothered me for anything (other than consistently being about a month behind on rent). That is 6 years of equity that I didn't have to do jack shit for other than chase her around for money every now and then.

She finally moved out and we decided to put the house on the market. From the time she moved out to the time the house was ready to show was about 10 days and we dropped about 3.5K getting it ready for sale. Listed the house and 48 hours later and we are under contract for $4k over my asking price.

I'm just gonna dole out rep here until it says I can't anymore. CELEBRATE WITH ME!!!

/cross fingers that the inspections goes off with no issues

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Well, the way my real estate agent has explained it is that if it hasn't been permitted by the city (which of course leads to higher property tax rates), additional square foot add-ons aren't generally listed by the agent.

But with that said, people will obviously see that there's more space than the actual county numbers, whether it's in detailed pictures or during showings so at the end of the day, selling at the appropriate pricing will happen. I suppose it could be different in your area, as there are variances in different parts of the country.

For example, we poked around some houses in KC back in 2011 and while short sales didn't affect the real estate in the Olathe/Lenexa/Leawood areas at that time, here in Los Angeles, our property values would be dinged, big time, for a minimum of six months if a short sale happened nearby.

Yeah, my value-adds are legal. The apartment is in the basement and has been there since World War II (and was permitted and in a location that allows mother-in-law apartments). The third floor was always there and I would say it was always finished space. It was just a playroom that hadn't been updated in 90 years. We just added a bathroom and a balcony and made some notable upgrades to the finishes.

It was all permitted work, but for some reasons some sources are off, so we end up with varying square footages on documents:

Only the first two floors with no basement (rarely)
The first two floors plus the basement, but not the third floor (rarely)
The top three floors with no basement (most common)
All three floors plus the basement (sometimes)

It used to be common practice on real estate to include only non-basement space in the square footage, but apparently that practice changed in the last decade or so. It appears that the listings now include basement space, so I get why my numbers are often off on realtor stuff. But if you leave off the basement in my house, you're cutting a big income revenue generator out since most of it is the apartment (and it's a pretty nice apartment).

Back when we had a mortgage, we refinanced a couple of times. Once the guy doing the appraisal was using some old document that completely left off the third floor, so he severely undervalued the house. He just did it from his desk and he wouldn't listen to me when I kept telling him that he was missing an entire floor (which is in the county records, by the way). I think I ended up filing a formal complaint against the guy because he wouldn't correct his appraisal and it was obviously completely wrong. I have no idea what document he was using.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Back when we had a mortgage, we refinanced a couple of times. Once the guy doing the appraisal was using some old document that completely left off the third floor, so he severely undervalued the house. He just did it from his desk and he wouldn't listen to me when I kept telling him that he was missing an entire floor (which is in the county records, by the way). I think I ended up filing a formal complaint against the guy because he wouldn't correct his appraisal and it was obviously completely wrong. I have no idea what document he was using.

Appraisals can be weird.

Back in January 2003, our landlord called to say that he wanted to sell the townhouse we'd been renting since 1999, asked if we wanted to purchase it and if so, call an appraiser for an estimate.

So, I hired an appraiser, who pegged the place at $242k, then called the owner and offered him $235k. He laughed. And laughed. And laughed. He said he could sell the place tomorrow for $405k and if we wanted to match that price, we could have it. Well, we passed and purchased our current home. Two weeks after we moved out of the townhouse, he sold it for $425k.

I think some of those guys are just lazy.

[Megatron96]

Assuming that all is still going well with the house, and so congrats are in order. I admit I'm a little surprised that it went so quickly. I was under the impression that houses weren't flying off the market right now.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Megatron96

Assuming that all is still going well with the house, and so congrats are in order. I admit I'm a little surprised that it went so quickly. I was under the impression that houses weren't flying off the market right now.

They're flying off the market nearly everywhere, even in Leawood, Kansas.

I have a buddy that's wanting a house in the OP/Leawood area, found one in South OP and was outbid by a cash buyer on a $600k home that was only on the market for less than a day.

Real estate is still booming in LA as well.

[Megatron96]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

They're flying off the market nearly everywhere, even in Leawood, Kansas.

I have a buddy that's wanting a house in the OP/Leawood area, found one in South OP and was outbid by a cash buyer on a $600k home that was only on the market for less than a day.

Real estate is still booming in LA as well.

Well, that's good to hear. Not currently thinking about selling, but my realtor called last week to tell me how much my home as increased in equity, which was nice of her, but she didn't mention anything about selling or that the market was booming.

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by Megatron96

Assuming that all is still going well with the house, and so congrats are in order. I admit I'm a little surprised that it went so quickly. I was under the impression that houses weren't flying off the market right now.

Housing market in the Valley is red hot. A realtor friend was recently saying that in the entry-level market ($250k-$375k) the asking price is the starting point and she has multiple offers within a day or two of listing. She had a house a couple weeks ago with 12 offers in 2 days.

[lewdog]

I have a friend looking for a house in the Valley. Offered on close to 20 houses, many on the first day it's listed and is getting outbid left and right. Crazy shit here right now.

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by lewdog

I have a friend looking for a house in the Valley. Offered on close to 20 houses, many on the first day it's listed and is getting outbid left and right. Crazy shit here right now.

That is nucking futs. Offering more than the asking price instead of less just seems wrong. 2% loans are accomplishing their intended purpose apparently.

[Megatron96]

Originally Posted by vailpass

That is nucking futs. Offering more than the asking price instead of less just seems wrong. 2% loans are accomplishing their intended purpose apparently.

that's exactly what happened when I sold my house in CA, back around 2002 or 2003? Put the house up for $3xx,xxx and had half a dozen people bid on it for about a week. Sold it for $4xx,xxx.

And to be absolutely honest, I wouldn't have bought any house on my block for more than $120,000. I paid $170,000, and I thought I was getting ripped off.

CA prices were and are just ridiculous for what you actually get.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by vailpass

That is nucking futs. Offering more than the asking price instead of less just seems wrong. 2% loans are accomplishing their intended purpose apparently.

I'm not sure if that's still happening in Denver, but we had a homebuying frenzy from about 2012 to 2016 where you weren't even touching a house for the asking price. It was bizarre. I knew people in the market for homes, and they would get a text from their broker that a house just went on the market that fit their specs, and they would have to drop everything and leave work to look at it, and make an offer that day for more than asking price. If not, it would be gone.

I can't even imagine buying a house in that manner. It's a tremendously expensive thing to do, and people were making decisions on offers in an hour. I knew of a couple of cases where the people never even saw the home. They got the text, looked at the pictures, and made an offer.

I don't think it's that bad now, but entry-price homes are still very competitive. Higher-priced homes seem to be a relatively normal market now where people have time to look and think about it.

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by Megatron96

that's exactly what happened when I sold my house in CA, back around 2002 or 2003? Put the house up for $3xx,xxx and had half a dozen people bid on it for about a week. Sold it for $4xx,xxx.

And to be absolutely honest, I wouldn't have bought any house on my block for more than $120,000. I paid $170,000, and I thought I was getting ripped off.

CA prices were and are just ridiculous for what you actually get.

Cali real estate is nuts. You did it the only way you can win: sell high there then buy in a different market.

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I'm not sure if that's still happening in Denver, but we had a homebuying frenzy from about 2012 to 2016 where you weren't even touching a house for the asking price. It was bizarre. I knew people in the market for homes, and they would get a text from their broker that a house just went on the market that fit their specs, and they would have to drop everything and leave work to look at it, and make an offer that day for more than asking price. If not, it would be gone.

I can't even imagine buying a house in that manner. It's a tremendously expensive thing to do, and people were making decisions on offers in an hour. I knew of a couple of cases where the people never even saw the home. They got the text, looked at the pictures, and made an offer.

I don't think it's that bad now, but entry-price homes are still very competitive. Higher-priced homes seem to be a relatively normal market now where people have time to look and think about it.

Agreed, what a way to make a major purchase. Best to fail fast I guess. I lived there in the early 90s when lofts in LoDo were hot but left before your market exploded in the way you describe here.

[2bikemike]

Originally Posted by vailpass

Housing market in the Valley is red hot. A realtor friend was recently saying that in the entry-level market ($250k-$375k) the asking price is the starting point and she has multiple offers within a day or two of listing. She had a house a couple weeks ago with 12 offers in 2 days.

I have a couple properties over in Surprise that I bought as foreclosures during the housing crisis. I have been thinking about selling due to the market, but the rental income stream has been pretty solid. Not sure I am ready to give that up.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by Megatron96

Assuming that all is still going well with the house, and so congrats are in order. I admit I'm a little surprised that it went so quickly. I was under the impression that houses weren't flying off the market right now.

It's the low interest rates.